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Can a family of 3 making $165k-170k afford to live in the District?
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Anonymous
| New to DC, we have a 5 month old so we have some time before schools are an issue and even so we know the publics are good in certain areas. Will be able to afford living in Ward 3? Thanks. |
Anonymous
|
What's your net worth?
How much and what kind of debt do you have? |
Anonymous
| What's your debt, future plans for more kids, do you both work, etc? Too many variables. |
Anonymous
| Of course you can if you lice within your means. What a silly question. That's a lot of money. |
Anonymous
| We plan to rent for a few years to get feel for the neighborhoods. My research has us focused on the Janney or Murch districts. We have no debt. Probably have one more kid. |
Anonymous
| Easily. We make about that much and are very comfortable. |
TheManWithAUsername
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Assuming no significant debt, you can certainly afford a 2BR apartment in a nice neighborhood (including decent elementary) at a minimum. Childcare expenses will be a significant factor. |
Anonymous
|
Yes. We make 170, are a family of 3 and live downtown (we - OMG! even own our own home).
Can you imagine? We have no consumer debt. |
Anonymous
| Do we at DCUM really now convince ourselves that most people who live in DC make more than that and we cannot survive on less than $250k a year? Think about DC's population. It's economically diverse. Wow, we in DCUM-land live in a bubble. |
Anonymous
| OP, even in this area your HHI is a hell of alot of money. It sounds as though you just want to brag and it is unseemly. |
Anonymous
This. I am a social worker, and some of the things posted on here amaze me. "Can" you live here making that much? Of course. A couple hundred thousand people do it everyday, most of whom have way less. I guess your question is can you have the lifestyle you want and buy a home in a "desireable" area on that income? Guess that depends how high your standards are. |
Anonymous
|
With your income you can certainly choose to live anywhere in this metro area. Question is how you want to structure your household budget and what you're willing to trade-off on.
We're $50k or so more than you in HHI, and were recently shopping for homes. We looked in upper NW (Tenleytown, Friendship Heights etc.) but realized we just had to trade off too much on space to make our budget work in those areas. So we ended up in N Arlington, also expensive, but generally a little more for your buck than many nice areas of upper NW, also we found the services/amenities for young kids were better... If you're buying then a lot will also depend on how much you have for a downpayment. The rents on rowhouses in decent areas in DC are also very high if you were considering that as an option. |
Anonymous
| OP, welcome to the mean, unhelpful DCUM crowd! |
Anonymous
| First, please just take a look around. We have a family of six and make it on under 60k a year. Although we don't live in or around the city. We own a home, have two used cars and have a realistic grocery budget each month. Many families in the DC area DO NOT make anywhere near $170k with children and they get by just fine. I have a friend with 3 children and she does very well on a salary of 80k per year as a single mother and she's in a very nice Northern Va suburb. I wish more people would stop being so damn naive about having high salaries when the rest of us are thankful for what we have and doing just fine. UGH. Reality check needed. |
Anonymous
OP was asking about living in the Janney school district not an outlying suburb or exburb. That was a fair question giving the cost of housing in that area. |